To which is annexed, an Appendix Containing official documents and letters authenticating the accounts of the quantities of gold found, with its actual value ascertained by chemical assay. Also late communications containing accounts of the highest interest and importance from the gold districts. With a Map. 1849   CHAPTER I. For the general information of the reader, it will be proper to give a brief geographical sketch of California, and some account of its political and social institutions, a

The following are letters addressed to the Government at Washington, and other communications, all of which, it will be seen, are fully confirmatory of the accounts given in the preceding pages; with other details of interest relative to the state of the gold districts: Extract from a Letter from Mr. Larkin, United States Consul at Monterey, to Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State at Washington . "San Francisco (Upper California), June 1, 1848. "Sir: ∗ ∗ ∗ I have to report to the State Department on